It is known to divide open office spaces into separate work areas by providing a series of interconnected walls. The walls frequently do not extend the full height to the ceiling of the room. The walls may preferably comprise part of a wall system formed of a plurality of preferably rigid rectangular frames or partitions rigidly joined together. Known workspace wall systems utilize utility panels or partitions which, preferably, are modular. Preferred such workspace wall systems and partitions therefore are taught in the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,577 to Tenser et al, issued Aug. 20, 1985; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,255 to Kelly, issued Aug. 11, 1987; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,035 to Hodges et al, issued May 11, 1993; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,007 to Hellwig et al, issued Jan. 11, 1994; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,658 to Schreiner et al, issued Mar. 7, 1995; and PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,650 to Edwards, issued Jun. 17, 1997. PA1 the wall having a first side surface and a second side surface with a width of the wall defined between the first and second side surfaces, PA1 the wall having a lower portion and an upper portion above the lower portion, PA1 the width of the wall over the upper portion being greater than the width of the wall over the lower portion, PA1 an overhead raceway defined within the upper portion between the first surface and the second surface, the overhead raceway extending longitudinally of the wall.
Each of these patents teaches a partition of substantially constant width throughout its height and various mechanisms to accommodate passageways therethrough for the transfer within the interior of the partition of utilities including electrical conduits, communication conduits and other similar wiring and cabling as well as other forms of utilities such as heating and air conditioning ducts and fluid pipes for water, cooling gases, fuels and the like. Utility panel systems such as those taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,035 to Hodges et al provide some partitions with an increased width throughout their height as compared with other partitions so as to provide increased width raceways or utility troughs throughout the length of each wider utility panel.
The present inventor has appreciated a difficulty with such previously known systems that the width of the partition dictates, to a large measure, the space available for a raceway and that increasing the width of a partition throughout its height, disadvantageously increases the floor area occupied by the partition.
Another disadvantage appreciated by the present inventor is that with many known workspace wall systems where the walls do not extend to the ceiling of the workspace, sound readily carries over the top of the walls.